Holger Rune, seventh seed, staged a dramatic comeback on Wednesday. He saved a match point to overthrow Taylor Fritz, the home favorite, 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-3. Rune reached his fifth ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final at the BNP Paribas Open.
“It was crazy. Really just stayed in the moment, kept fighting,” Rune said in his on-court interview. “Tried to play from point to point and I thought I managed to raise my level quite amazingly at the end of the second set.”
The 20-year-old prevailed a slow start in the first set as he committed 15 unforced errors. Meanwhile Fritz claimed 16 of the final 19 points in the opener and was dictating with first-strike tennis.
Rune faced a match point during a seven-minute service game at 4-5 in the second set, just 85 minutes into his second Lexus ATP Head2Head contest against Fritz. However, Fritz missed a backhand return on Rune’s second serve at 30/40, giving the 20-year-old a new leash of life.
Later Rune gained control of the match by forcing a second-set tie-break and by playing closer to the baseline. Holger seemed to attack the American’s second serve, securing his only break in the fourth game of the decider. This marked the first service game Fritz lost all week.
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Rune’s Determination Shines Through as he Advances to Indian Wells Quarterfinals
The Dane, Ranked World No. 7 in the PIF ATP Rankings revived the Indian Wells crowd with his energy and shot making. He levelled with Fritz at 1-1 his Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
“He was controlling it from the first set and a long time of the second set as well. I’m just happy that I kept fighting and kept believing that I was going to find my rhythm at some point,” said Rune, who also hit 29 winners.
Rune will have his next meeting with Daniil Medvedev fourth seed and last year’s finalist in the last eight. This will mark the 20-year-old’s first Masters 1000 quarter-final appearance outside of Europe. The pair split their first two meetings, both of which were on clay courts.
“I’m a player that’s going to attack. I don’t care who I play, I’m going to attack anyways,” Rune said. “Against Daniil, it’s a completely different match from today. I think the only similarity [Fritz and Medvedev] have is the big serve, otherwise they are two different players.”
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Rune is 13-5 this season, who’s a four-time tour-level titlist. Before this week, his best performance at Indian Wells was reaching the third round last year.
Having won the BNP Paribas Open title in 2022, Fritz is aiming for his fourth back-to-back quarter-final at his home tournament.
Fritz, who won the BNP Paribas Open title in 2022, was aiming for his fourth consecutive quarter-final at his home tournament.
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